Michael Harrison
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Michael Harrison
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Groundbreaking composer/pianist Michael Harrison has developed one of the most distinctive musical styles of our time. Adapting ancient principles of harmonic resonance to create new tunings and scales, Harrison combines a lifelong study of Western classical and North Indian classical music to forge a new harmonic world (Paul Griffiths, The New York Times). Through his expertise in just intonation tuning systems and North Indian ragas, combined with a deep understanding of Indian and Middle Eastern rhythms, and his innate gift for melodic composition, he has created a revolutionary new sound for the piano.
For the past 25 years, Harrison has performed his music throughout the U.S. and Europe and has received grants and residencies from the American Academy in Rome, the Dia Art Foundation, the IBLA Foundation, the MELA Foundation, the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and Meet The Composer. As a protege of master Indian vocalists, Pandit Pran Nath and Maestro Mashkoor Ali Khan, and American composer, Terry Riley, Harrison also teaches and performs concerts of North Indian classical music in the U.S. and India.
Harrison began his piano studies focusing on both classical music and jazz, and went on to study composition at the University of Oregon and The Juilliard School. Early in his career, he began intensive compositional studies with 20th century icon, La Monte Young, a principle forerunner in the just intonation movement and Harrison's primary influence. He continued working closely with Young preparing all of the specialized tunings and scores for Young's 6 - hour magnum opus The Well-Tuned Piano. In 1987, Harrison became the only other person besides Young to perform this monumental work.
In 1986, Harrison designed and created the harmonic piano, an extensively modified grand piano with the ability to alternate between two different tunings to play 24 notes per octave on a conventional keyboard (not to be confused with the harmonically tuned piano, which is Harrison's name for a standard piano that has been converted to one of his tunings). Kyle Gann from The Village Voice hailed the harmonic piano as "an indisputable landmark in the history of Western tuning." From Ancient Worlds, Harrison's epic work composed for the harmonic piano, was recorded in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for New Albion Records and was voted the No. 2 Best Recording of the Year in 1992 on WNYC-FM's New Sounds Listener's Poll. Harrison performed this work in 1999 at the Quattro Pianoforti festival at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome that also included solo and group recitals with Philip Glass, Terry Riley and Charlemagne Palestine. He gave the first performance of Revelation as a work-in-progress in 2001 at the prestigious Klavier Festival Ruhr in Germany, followed by the U.S. premiere at the Solo Flights festival hosted at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
